Written Answers Thursday 7 July 2005

Scottish Executive

Animal Welfare

Dr Elaine Murray (Dumfries) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what regulations protect the welfare of intensively farmed chickens.

Ross Finnie: The Welfare of Farmed Animals (Scotland) Regulations 2000 sets down the minimum welfare standards for farmed animals including poultry. Additional requirements for the welfare of laying hens are set out in the Welfare of Farmed Animals (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2002.

Animal Welfare

Dr Elaine Murray (Dumfries) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive whether the draft Animal Health and Welfare (Scotland) Bill will provide any additional protection to intensively farmed chickens.

Ross Finnie: The draft Animal Health and Welfare Bill will not provide any additional protection for intensively farmed chickens. However, a draft EU Council Directive based on the EU Report The Welfare of Chickens kept for Meat Production (Broilers) , proposes to set down additional minimum standards for the protection of chickens kept for meat production. This proposal is currently being examined by a European Council Working Group.

Mental Health

Shona Robison (Dundee East) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-16835 by Rhona Brankin on 17 June 2005, whether any of the patients where clinical agreement has been reached with the receiving clinicians are unable to be transferred from the State Hospital due to suitable care and treatment arrangements being unavailable in the receiving NHS board area.

Lewis Macdonald: It is for the patient’s own health board to provide suitable care and treatment arrangements for a patient who is ready to be transferred out of the State Hospital. if no facilities are available within the board area then it is up to that board to consider other appropriate facilities outwith their area.

  As at 30 June 2005, 46 out of the 227 patients within the State Hospital had been assessed by State Hospital clinicians as being ready for transfer to a less secure environment, subject to agreement with clinicians in the receiving health board area. For 27 of the 46 patients, clinical agreement had been reached with the receiving clinicians. Nineteen of these 27 patients have been waiting over three months for a transfer out of the State Hospital.

Prison Service

Alex Neil (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to S2W-17047 by Cathy Jamieson on 14 April 2005, why information on the turnover of staff employed at the health centre in HM Prison Kilmarnock in each of the last five years cannot be provided, given that, under the terms of clause 49.1 of the minute of agreement between the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) and Kilmarnock Prison Services Ltd, the SPS can provide information about the contract and the performance of the contractor if an enquiry is made from the Parliament, its members and officers, and whether it will now provide the information requested.

Cathy Jamieson: I have asked Tony Cameron, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond. His response is as follows:

  
The SPS does not have the information. The contract has been published on the SPS website at www.sps.gov.uk and details the outputs to be delivered. How they are achieved is a matter for the company.

Recycling

Mr Jamie McGrigor (Highlands and Islands) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive how much plastic has been recycled in each of the last five years (a) in total and (b) broken down by local authority area.

Ross Finnie: Information on the recycling of plastic is available in the Scottish Environment Protection Agency’s Waste Data Digests, which can be found at: http://www.sepa.org.uk/publications/wds/index.htm .

  The Waste and Resources Action Programme have also recently published a survey on plastic bottle recycling across the UK. This can be found at: http://www.wrap.org.uk/templates/temp_publication.rm?id=698&publication=1701.

Recycling

Mr Jamie McGrigor (Highlands and Islands) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive how much plastic, other than from plastic bags, has been recycled in each of the last five years.

Ross Finnie: Information on the amount of plastic recycled is available in the Scottish Environment Protection Agency’s Waste Data Digests. These can be found at: http://www.sepa.org.uk/publications/wds/index.htm .

Recycling

Mr Jamie McGrigor (Highlands and Islands) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive what percentage of plastic recycled in each of the last five years was from sources other than plastic bags.

Ross Finnie: We do not hold this precise information. However, around 10% of the municipal waste stream consists of plastics and around 0.3% of the municipal waste stream consists of plastic bags. We would expect, therefore, that most recycling of plastics from the municipal waste stream would not relate to plastic bags but would relate to other products, such as plastic bottles.

Recycling

Mr Jamie McGrigor (Highlands and Islands) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive which local authorities have a policy for recycling plastics from sources other than plastic bags.

Ross Finnie: Twenty-four local authorities provide facilities for the recycling of plastic bottles either through kerbside collections or through recycling points or centres. Information on recycling facilities across Scotland can be found on the "Sort-It" section of the Scottish Waste Awareness Group’s website at http://www.wascot.org.uk/ .

Recycling

Mr Jamie McGrigor (Highlands and Islands) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive where facilities for recycling plastics from sources other than plastic bags are located.

Ross Finnie: Information on recycling facilities across Scotland can be found on the "Sort-It" section of the Scottish Waste Awareness Group website at http://www.wascot.org.uk .

Recycling

Mr Jamie McGrigor (Highlands and Islands) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive how many plastic milk cartons have been distributed in each of the last five years.

Ross Finnie: Precise figures are not available. However, we estimate that around 200 million plastic milk bottles are distributed a year in Scotland.

Recycling

Mr Jamie McGrigor (Highlands and Islands) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive what markets exist (a) within Scotland, (b) within the United Kingdom and (c) internationally for plastics recycled in Scotland.

Ross Finnie: There are a range of markets for recycled plastics. Within Scotland, there are markets for agricultural film and fish farm plastic. Within the UK, markets exist for plastic bottles. There is also demand for plastic bottles elsewhere in the EU and from the far east.

  The Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) has recently published a Survey of Applications, Markets and Growth Opportunities for Recycled Plastics in the UK. This report can be found on the WRAP website at: http://www.wrap.org.uk/templates/temp_publication.rm?id=698&publication=278.

Voluntary Organisations

Linda Fabiani (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what variations in the standard conditions for funding voluntary organisations it has made in the last year.

Malcolm Chisholm: It was decided to review general grant conditions across the Scottish Executive because inconsistencies were emerging in the control of funding, for example, the way in which annual accounts had to be presented. The updated conditions ensure uniformity of the core conditions applying to all recipients of grant funding from the Scottish Executive. The updated conditions are also designed to be more user friendly and transparent than those used previously. Furthermore, the updated conditions consolidate a range of conditions already in place, and Scottish Executive Divisions are able to amend clauses to suit their needs.

Voluntary Organisations

Linda Fabiani (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it considers a six-month renewable funding regime to be more appropriate for voluntary organisations than the three-year rolling budgets to which local authorities work.

Malcolm Chisholm: Scottish Executive grant funding is normally available on a three year funding basis, with instalment arrangements agreed between recipient organisations, in accordance with the Scottish Compact with the voluntary sector. Organisations can seek to receive grant funding from the Scottish Executive in any way which suits their needs and this will be considered, subject to financial rules and spending review restrictions.

Voluntary Organisations

Linda Fabiani (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it is appropriate for funding bodies to seek intellectual property rights over research carried out on their behalf by voluntary organisations.

Malcolm Chisholm: It is appropriate for the Scottish Executive to retain intellectual property rights on publicly funded research if, for example, retention of these rights by the grant recipient organisation might inhibit policy development or dissemination, or create a disproportionate commercial benefit to the grantee. However, if there is no need for the Scottish Executive to retain intellectual property rights it will be appropriate for the voluntary organisation undertaking the research with public funding to hold them for the work done.